Global development campaigning and education in Europe

Global development campaigning and education in EuropeIdeas and suggestions from EU supported DEAR ProjectsSandra Oliveira with Harm-Jan FrickeDEAR Support Team January 2021

2 Global development campaigning and education in Europe

Global development campaigning and education in EuropeIdeas and suggestions from EU supported DEAR Projects

The DEAR Support Team is a project managed, on behalf of the European Commission, by a consortium led by EPRD from January 2015 to January 2021 | www.eprd.pl

_Sandra Oliveira is based in Lisbon where she coordinates the 4Change cooperative: a collective of professionals working in Global Citizenship, Civic Media Literacy and Social impact. With a communication and audiovisual background, anthropology research skills and experience in GCE/DE, theory of change and participatory processes, much of her consultancy work is concerned with facilitation of learning and the application of capacity for development tools. Further information about her work can be found atlinkedin.com/in/sunoliveira

Authors are members of the DEAR Support Team:

The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the

views of the European Commission or any other organisation or authority.

_Harm-Jan Fricke is an independent consultant working in the field of Global Learning/Development Education. With a background in education and experience of curriculum development and programme management much of his work is concerned with evaluation, strategy and project planning and facilitation of learning and development events. Based in Oxford, his clients include local, national and international organisations, departments and networks. Further information about his work can be found atlinkedin.com/in/hjfricke

This document is an edited and updated version of the ‘Planning and Implementing EU DEAR projects’ publication, produced by the DEAR Support Team in 2017.

https://eprd.pl/en/home-page/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunoliveira/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hjfricke/

Global development campaigning and education in Europe 3

ContentsIntroduction: Learning from past EU Development Education & Awareness Raising projects 4

The structure of this paper 5

1. From Proposal to Re-planning and Implementation 6

A. What to have in mind at the start 6

B. Re-assessing context and targets - adjust your plans 8

C. Your European Commission Task Manager 9

2. Ready, set, go - managing a DEAR project 10

A. The value of a partnership: working together in diversity 10

B. Challenges, opportunities and recommendations 10

C. Management: sharing responsibilities and information 12

D. Coordination tools and systems 13

E. Managing sub-granting projects 14

3. From outsiders to insiders 15

A. How to engage citizens: strategies, audiences and outreach 15

B. Pyramid of engagement: quantifying your outreach 15

C. Change agents, multipliers, peers? 16

D. Engaging young people in development issues 18

E. Other audiences and themes 19

4. Communication: Online, offline, ‘inline’ with DEAR approaches 21

A. Going online: the good, the bad and the inevitable

amidst a pandemia 21

B. Your Communication and Visibility plan 23

C. How to communicate Climate Change 23

D. Counteracting negative narratives on Migration 25

5. Awareness raising/Global learning/Campaigning-Advocacy 26

A. Creating policy change 27

B. Global learning and competency development 27

6. Who’s afraid of social impact? 28

A. Results chain and other references for M&E 28

B. Setting up your monitoring system and learning from implementation 29

C. MEL, external evaluators and critical friends 30

D. How do we know it’s working? 30

E. Impact - creating results and outcomes that last? 31

7. Achievements, celebrations and...reports? 33

A. Escaping the most common pitfalls: narrative reporting 33

B. Financial reporting 33

8. Notes 34


Introduction: Learning from past EU Development Education & Awareness Raising projects

This paper summarises outcomes of work done by representatives of 86 European Commission supported Development Education & Awareness Raising (DEAR) projects. 376 participants representing 158 organisations, institutions, agencies and local authorities participated in 23 ‘Exchange Hubs’ and ‘Learning & Development Hubs’ held during a six-year period from 2015 to 2020.

The Hubs offered participants an opportunity to draw out learning points from their experiences: learning points which they felt would be of benefit too to colleagues in future DEAR projects. As one Hub participant highlighted, “key things you wished you’d known at the start”.

The Exchange Hubs involved representatives of all ongoing EC DEAR projects (Calls for Proposals 2011-12, 2013, 2016 and 2018). The Hubs looked at ‘bigger’ questions such as:

• how do projects try to create a sustained impact?

• how do they work in and with local communities?

• how do they organise their work in large partnerships?

• how do they contribute to the overall EU DEAR objectives?

• how do they plan for efficient communication with stakeholders?

• how do projects assess, learn and report their results?

The Learning & Development Hubs each brought together a smaller number of projects - including their stakeholders - that had experience of a particular theme or issue:

• using ‘multipliers’ or ‘change agents’ in implementing DEAR;

• working with and on issues of social and economic change;

• assessing the results of projects on project audiences and participants;

• using evaluation to help shape the project during implementation;

• engaging people in the Sustainable Development Goals;

• using ‘sub-granting’ to achieve project objectives;

• communicating Climate Change and global development;

• inspiring and engaging Young people in development issues;

• counteracting negative narratives on Migration;

• how to create Policy change;

• and experiences of DEAR projects and the wider Global Learning context.

The discussions and suggestions from the Hubs were captured in reports that are available from the Commission’s Capacity4Dev website - europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/news/learning-dear-projects.

The following pages draw on those reports, providing suggestions and food for thought on aspects of DEAR project planning, implementation and evaluation. The paper is neither a project management manual nor a formal evaluation of EU-DEAR project experiences. Instead it aims to offer a range of suggestions that are relevant to EC-DEAR projects: useful to staff involved in designing and implementing projects concerned with awareness raising of, campaigning-advocacy for or education in global development.

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/news/learning-dear-projects




The paper considers that at the start of implementation you and your project team will need to re-familiarise and re-assess the context and your targets, and probably re-plan various aspects of the project in order to achieve your objectives. And that during further implementation you may have to do that re-planning again.

This is followed by a look at issues of implementation: building, managing and being part of a project team, setting up and maintaining finance and internal communication systems.

The third section focuses on working with ‘outsiders’ - in particular Change Agents, local communities and ‘sub-grantees’ - to make them into ‘insiders European citizens are the audiences you mean to engage, but which outreach strategies and approaches will make a noticeable difference?

A fourth section focuses on recommendations for DEAR project communications, both those given by external experts – on Climate Change and Migration – and from colleague DEAR practitioners. The section also includes reference to the current Covid-19 pandemic and how it has forced a re-think in working online and through social media.

A fifth section takes a look at a few concepts and practices that always provoke debate but can help in being clear on the practical use of ‘Advocacy’, ‘Global Learning’ or ‘Policy Change’.

The sixth section is dedicated to the need for both learning from implementation and proving your project’s impact, clarifying results chains and other concepts: recommendations for setting up your monitoring system and using external evaluators in creating results and outcomes that last.

The seventh section derives from the MEL system: how to have a good project closure and increase impact that lasts, celebrating

The structure of this paper

your achievements, as well as escaping the most common pitfalls when you close and report on your work.

The paper concludes with a few references and further information.

1. Planing and re-planing

2. Managing implementation

5. Creatingresults that last

4. Monitoring and evaluating for learning

and accountability

3. Working and communicatingwith 'outsiders

Your Concept Note and Full Project

Proposal

Terminology

Manager

Partner Partner Partner Partner

Manager

External evaluator and MEL

Monitor the details, but evaluate the outcomesand the bigger picture

Use the �nal evaluation processto gather ideas for future work

Learn from the ongoing evaluation to adjust your plans (and useinterim evaluation outcomes to give you evidence of why adjustment is needed)

If you’ve had a ROM review, ask your Task Manager for the ROM report

Make use of your evaluation budget, and adjust it where necessary

Keep track of progress against your baseline information

Partner Partner

Foster a particularunderstanding of the problem

of “development” and how it occors

Economic action

Social action

A realisation that development is com-plex, uncertain, and

full of risks

Thereby changingpeople’s ways of think-

ing and living

What is neededis a process that

challenges individuals’ views of the world and

of development

There are competing accounts

of development

Fostering skillsthat enable people

(individually and collectively) to make

up their own minds

Political action

Partner

Partner

Partner Cordinator Partner

Partner

Partner

Show real people

7 core principles for climate change communication

Tell new stories

Show local (but serious) impacts

Show emotionallypowerful impacts

Show climate change causes at scale

Understand your audience

Be careful with pro-test imagery

Who needs to be empowered to be able to be a Change Agent?Participants and others

How will understanding and skills, that are relevant to the Change Agents, be developed?What will you/the project do to support the Change Agents?

Implementation

How will you and others know about success?

Evaluation

How will you/the project organisations contribute to future (post-project) activities by the Change Agents?

Follow up

What is the problem you want to address?Is your project's focussing on a change process or on already identi�ed speci�c change?Intentions

of you project

Level 6 Innovator

Level 5 Multiplier

Level 4 Activist

Level 3 Supporter

Level 2 Follower/Interested

Level 1 Spectator/Aware

Level 0 Consumer

Creating change requires three consecutive steps

Create awarenessand knowledgeof development

Address attitudesthat are favourable

to development

As a result obtain behaviour that

fostersdevelopment

Involving actions

that focus on “the here

and now”

Involving experiential

(instead of didactic)

learningapproaches

Raisingawareness

Developing and applying

understanding(s)

Creating and advocating

new policies

Fostering and exemplifying

behaviouralchanges

Training of skills and experiencing

the use of those skills

Developing a sense of agency

(i.e. that you can make meaningful change,

that you have the capacity to act, and that there

is additional strength in collective action)

Other CSOs, Institution, LAs

Policies

Society / Community

Your OrganisationInstitution, LA

Audiences / Participants

Impact(Overall Objective)

Change to which the intervention will contribute, tends to be LT - at country, regional, sector level

Outcome(Specific Objective)

MT changes in the behaviour of the target groups- under control of the target group

OutputsGoods/services directly delivered by the project - under control of the intervention

ActivitiesWhat the project does to produce the results (Utilisation of resources)

Imputs Financial/Human/Physical Resources

Resu

lts

(OEC

D D

AC d

e�ni

tion)

Examples of results statements (1)


To reduce gender-based violence


Increased prosecution of gender-based vio-lence cases

Outputs

O1 Strengthened prosecutorial and judicial capacities in the �eld of gender-bases violence

02 Public awareness raised about gender-based violence

03 Strengthened investigatory capacities for gender-based violence cases

Outreachtools

events

fear

trends

change

socialsocial

keep

identity

NoShowRate

social

people

target

media

Tone

Difficult


A. What to have in mind at the start

You’ve submitted your Concept Note and your Full Proposal. Many months later you hear that they have been agreed and you or the lead applicant have signed an agreement with the Commission about the work to be done. By the time you start your project it is likely that your initial ideas are more than one-and-a-half years old and that the more worked out ideas of your full proposal were developed more than a year ago.

In the meantime, some of the staff who you were expecting to work on this project have left their organisation or authority, or they have been assigned to other work. It might even be the case that your own employer has agreed to a new strategic plan that doesn’t give as much priority to the issues of your project as previously.

In the external environment, laws, regulations or priorities may have changed too: the teachers you hoped to be working with have a new curriculum to respond to, one that doesn’t quite fit with your original ideas; the decision-makers you hoped to influence have made decisions that make achievement of your objectives more complicated; and media and society have become more interested in national issues to the detriment of attention to global development.

It may also happen that your target group is now using other social media or suffers from ‘zoom fatigue’ caused by the impossibility to meet face-to-face.

a) Sounds familiar? Time to re-assess your original ideas and re-plan them.

Throughout the implementation of your project, the objectives you specified in your Concept Note and Log-frame can’t be changed, but almost anything else can – if you have good reasons for this and the agreement from your Task Manager.

b) You think you don’t need to re-plan your original proposal? Nevertheless, do look at it again - carefully.

The plans put together more than a year ago are unlikely to have involved everyone who now needs to be involved in their implementation. Even if they all were involved, you and they may well have forgotten the details or the reasoning behind particular aspects of the plan - bring everyone to the same page and create opportunities for improving your plan.

1. From Proposal to Re-planning and Implementation

Use your re-planning in the first few months of the project as an opportunity to build your project team.

Near the start of the project, organise a multi-day “getting to know you” and planning event involving all project staff.


This list of recommendations will be further explained in the following sections.

Essentials for success

1. Get to know the different project staff

• Ideally within the first month or two organise a face-to-face meeting involving all project staff: to discuss the project, individual backgrounds, interests and expectations, and plans to make the project successful.

• Find out how your colleagues like to work. There will be cultural, organisational, skills and experience differences between different project partners and personal preferences for a particular way of working, all of which affect your work as a project team. Being aware of this from the beginning is likely to prevent problems later on.

2. Make sure that all project staff know what you are collectively trying to achieve and what you each hope to ‘get out of’ participating in the project

• Partners and different project staff are likely to have different reasons for being involved and they may well want to achieve different things through the project.

• Discuss at an early stage your different hopes and expectations for the project, making sure there’s a mutual understanding of these – and a collective agreement on the common and shared purpose of the project

3. Make sure that all project staff know what their role is, and that everyone knows that of each other

• Who is responsible for which aspects of the project?

• How will they relate and report to a) the Project Manager or Coordinator and b) other project staff?

4. Agree and implement key systems (incl. finance, communications, monitoring & evaluation, reporting)

• How will you work together? How often will you meet and communicate?

• What will you communicate and what not? Not everybody needs to know everything – but they do need to know about things that affect their role in the project and about how that relates to the project’s shared, overall objectives

• If you’ve not already done so: within the first two months of the project’s start appoint an external evaluator or critical friend to help you in developing the project’s M&E system as part of the re-development of your project plan

• Keep your finance, reporting, communications and M&E systems simple: focus on the information you need in order to know how you are doing. Collecting information on what you are all doing is not helpful if it doesn’t tell you what those activities lead to.

5. Prepare your one minute ‘elevator pitch’

• In not more than 60 seconds explain what your project tries to achieve, why that is important, and how it tries to do it – and use that as an introduction to the project with people who can help you in making it a success.

6. During the whole project set aside at least one-third of the project’s time to planning (and to assessing and learning from what you’ve done)

• Don’t rush into doing activities with your supporters/participants/ audiences. In one of the Hubs, a project manager said: “we should have given much more time to planning instead of ‘doing things’” Other participants agreed that planning and learning were often neglected to such an extent that the project had not been as successful as it could have been.

• Change is inevitable: expect to revise your project plan as previous opportunities disappear and new opportunities appear.

7. Prepare a good kick-off meeting • For your first project team meeting (and also for major review meetings) consider using an external facilitator to help you: it will give the Project Manager/Coordinator an opportunity to take a full part in the discussion instead of having to keep track of the agenda and of everyone’s input, and it can help in spreading the ‘ownership’ of the project to all partners instead of it being seen primarily as the lead organisation/lead authority’s ‘baby’.


B. Re-assessing context and targets - adjust your plans

The success of your project depends on working with ‘outsiders’, i.e. people who are not or not closely involved in the project’s planning and organisation, but who are important because they help you to achieve your project’s intentions: your target audiences, participants, supporters, activists. Your proposal will have described who they are and why they are important in addressing the issues you have identified.

To find out how the external environment affects your project develop a ‘situational analysis’. A simple one might use a PESTO approach, asking the question:

What are the circumstances that affect or may affect your issue – and hence your project?

EXTERNAL

• Political• Economic• Social

• Technological

INTERNAL

• Organisational circumstances and developments.

Following such an analysis, what are the Strengths and Weaknesses of the individual and collective project partners in making use of and addressing these PESTO circumstances and developments – and what roles do your project’s ‘outsiders’ have in this?1

Your proposal will have indicated how you plan to work with your ‘outsiders’ (target audiences, supporters and others) and why you think you can work with them. In the first few months of implementation find out more about these ‘outsiders’ and re-assess if your proposed way of working with them is feasible.

Devote most of the first year of implementation to planning your project: your activities in years 2 and 3 are likely to be all the better for it.

Develop a shared understandingin your project team of the contexts and issues of your project.

Things to Consider about your Project’s Outsiders (and about you)2

• What is your organisation’s credibility to be working on the

project?

• What will give you the authority, understanding, skills, interest,

enthusiasm to target or work with your project’s ‘outsiders’?

• How well do you understand your participants/targets/

supporters and other influential people who can affect the

success of your project? What are their priorities, concerns and

perspectives?

• What is the relevant information and other evidence you have for

use in your project?

• How will you present it in a way so that your participants/targets/

supporters/influentials can use it?

• How will you build your participants’/targets’/supporters’/

influentials’ trust in you so they feel that you know what you are

talking about?

1 For these and other techniques see for example: https://www.odi.org/publications/5258-planning-tools-problem-tree-analysis and https://www.mindtools.com2 Find a set of useful questions to re-think your project before, during and after implementation at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/ec/dear/documents/asking-questions-about-dear-projects

Find out about your audiences and others who can help you, before you plan the details of activities to involve them. Unless you’ve already worked with your ‘outsiders’ before and know ‘where they are coming from’, finding out about them and developing ideas of how to contact and work with them takes time. It is time well spent because it increases the chances of your project’s feasibility and relevance: helping to make your ‘outsiders’ into knowledgeable and skilled ‘insiders’ who are able to sustain and build on the project’s achievements once the project is finished.

https://www.odi.org/publications/5258-planning-tools-problem-tree-analysis

https://www.mindtools.com/http://

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/ec/dear/documents/asking-questions-about-dear-projects


Participants in different DEAR hubs have stressed the usefulness to research also those that voice different values and messages or that perform actions contrary to your project’s objectives. Tracing a map of stakeholders or doing a target group analysis that includes these ‘negative stakeholders’ is a good investment - as it will be very useful for fine-tuning your messages and communications, as well as understanding better the challenges your project is facing.

C. Your European Commission Task Manager

A key ‘outsider’ who is also a key ‘insider’ of your project is your DEAR Task Manager. She or he will sign-off on your interim reports and accounts, and will have to agree to any major changes in your plans.

1. Try to arrange a face-to-face meeting in Brussels or at least an online conference between your project manager and the project’s Task Manager in the first few months of the project. Most Commission Task Managers have no experience of the practical implementation of a DEAR project, and the reasons why it is organised in a particular way may also be new to them. However, your Task Manager’s understanding of the opportunities, constraints and ways of working of your project can be very important, particularly when things may not go according to the original plan. Getting such an understanding through direct discussions is much better than through written or telephone contact alone.

2. When it is possible, invite your Task Manager (and other relevant Commission staff and MEPs) to take part in events for them to get to know about your project in action. It is usually very difficult for your Task Manager to be allowed out of Brussels, but more likely if events involve different organisations and stakeholders from across a range of EU member states. Discuss with your Task Managers what kind of event or invitation might make it more likely for them to be allowed to accept an invitation to visit and get to know the project better.

Your revised plan

It may take three months or it may take a year, and it may need to happen in the first, second or third year, but at some point your original plan may need some relatively major changes.

Before submitting a formal suggestion to change your plans, use informal emails and telephone calls and ask your Task Manager for any suggestions they have or about potential problems they can foresee from their side with the changes you want to make. The version of the PRAG that is applicable to your project may be helpful too when considering possible changes to your plans.3

If changes need to be made to your plans and/or budget, submit them formally explaining what is to be changed and why that change is needed.

During the past years Task Managers have become less concerned about changes in the activities that are carried out by a project.

Instead they are much more interested in results and in explanations of how those results will be or have been achieved. Therefore, focus on your results and explain how they will contribute to achievement of your project’s objectives.

Keep your Task Manager informed if you think results or major activities need revision or re-development, or if the budget needs changing.

3 The edition of the PRAG that is applicable to your project is mentioned in the lead applicant’s contract with the European Commission. For the latest edition of PRAG (not necessarily the one that applies to your project!) see: https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/prag/?header_description=DEVCO+Prag+to+financial+and+contractual+procedures+applicable+to+external+actions+financed+from+the+general+budget+of+the+EU+and+from+the+11th+EDF&long=1000101481&header_keywords=ePrag%2C+europa Links to previous editions of PRAG are also available via this page.

https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/prag/?header_description=DEVCO+Prag+to+financial+and+contractual+procedures+applicable+to+external+actions+financed+from+the+general+budget+of+the+EU+and+from+the+11th+EDF&long=1000101481&header_keywords=ePrag%2C+europa

https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/prag/?header_description=DEVCO+Prag+to+financial+and+contractual+procedures+applicable+to+external+actions+financed+from+the+general+budget+of+the+EU+and+from+the+11th+EDF&long=1000101481&header_keywords=ePrag%2C+europa


A. The value of a partnership: working together in diversity

To begin with...

• Acknowledge and value the differences: your project can get richer and have more impact

2. Ready, set, go - managing a DEAR project

Don’t rush into doing things. Instead, consider how what each of you wants to get out of - and wants to contribute to - the project can be met in the plan.

Your project will be implemented in a wide range of countries involving multiple partners, with different backgrounds and working in different cultures and languages. Each organisation or authority has its own internal culture, its own agenda and different work practices - the staff involved in the project will be different too, bringing diverse capacities and experiences. How do you keep this together, effective and efficient in working towards shared results and objectives?

4 Even if you and your partners belong to the same international alliance, agency or network, do NOT assume that you are all taking part for the same reasons

• Take your time in getting to know each other:

- Why is each of your organisations/authorities involved in the project: what do they hope to gain and what can they contribute to the project?4

- What do each of you consider to be the individual and the shared opportunities and threats to the success of your project?

- What ideas do you have to build on the individual and the shared opportunities, and to minimise the threats?

- What can each of the project staff members and partners contribute to the project: what do they consider to be their strengths and their weaknesses, and what do they hope to be able to write on a future CV about what they have learned, managed or experienced through the project?

- In working together as an international project team, what do you think the greatest problems will be, and how might you reduce those problems?

And what are the main advantages of working in partnerships? DEAR project participants in one of the Hubs came up with the following summary:

• Working in partnership allows for more efficiency and effectiveness because of the experience and skills shared as well as a larger scope and reach out towards the targets/countries/regions - building more impact of our action

• Learning from other partners’ methods and experiences, provides capacity building opportunities, stimulates innovation and provides a wider, more realistic perspective to the project

• Partnerships increase credibility of the project and of profile of individual partners

B. Challenges, opportunities and recommendations

Participants highlighted a handful of challenges, starting with the amount of time required to build trust, shared understanding and ownership of the project and the fact that large partnerships require extra time and costs for internal communication, coordination, monitoring and administrative burden.

Different aspects of the project may use different management approaches: clarify why you use it, not only because is the most appropriate but it allows creativity and can be adapted, when needed.


Risks

Large partnerships also involve risks and the ability of the lead partner in managing and taking full responsibility for the project is reduced.

To address these challenges, check recommendations in the following sections5 - and remember to keep a strategic view of a partnership as an alliance that goes beyond the (couple of years) work to implement one project. You can cherish and nurture those alliances that have worked well and look for alternative means of funding for a next project as part of your long-term objectives.

Large and small partners

In most DEAR projects some of the partners will be large, able to devote more time and attention to the project, while others may be relatively small, with only part-time input available. This can easily lead to an ‘in-group’ who is closely and almost daily involved in the project, and an ‘out-group’ of those who are less engaged. There is a risk that amongst smaller partners this may lead to demotivation and a de-prioritisation of work on the project. How do you make and keep a partnership real for large and small partners alike?

DEAR project participants in one of the Hubs came up with the following suggestions:

• Ensure that all partners (large and small) can input into the overall project plan and the direction or overall strategy of the project on an equal basis.

• As part of your team building activities identify which partners have particular skills and experiences, and which skills and experiences they would like to develop: skills that can be brought to bear on the project.6

• Explicitly use the implementation of the project and the allocation of tasks to build on and improve partner capacities and capabilities, assigning the lead roles in specific areas of work to partners across the partnership, including amongst smaller partners.7

Across different Hubs, DEAR project managers and other staff have shared several tools and strategies used to allow partners to get to know each other better and to both build the capacity as well as improve the sharing of responsibilities across the partnership. Agree with your partners what can work better for the building and sharing of a good partnership:

• Face-to-face meetings are cherished unanimously to have the best results - most project leads organise long kick-off meetings and request their partners’ contributions to a varied programme, with networking opportunities and dynamic, collaborative work

• Many include capacity building moments facilitated by some of the partners and the sharing of methods or materials sessions by other partners - repeated in yearly, with half year or mid-term meetings

• Due to costs or ecological reasons and, more recently, due to the Covid19 pandemic, long face-to-face meetings are sometimes not an option. Projects that started implementation after March 2020 have tried to cope with this using online meeting tools in a creative way, enabling some degree of informality, sharing and networking

• Some DEAR projects have even set a programme of Webinars for capacity building that combine with regular partner meetings or with thematic working groups meetings in parallel.

Changing partners

How do you deal with a change of partner when one of the original partners is no longer taking part? If that happens it is likely to take your Task Manager some time to approve changes in the partnership composition or structure.

• In the short-term, wherever possible re-assign work and budgets across the remaining partners to ensure planned work continues.

5 A report on the outcomes of an Exchange Hub on ‘Working in and with large partnerships’ is available at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/blog/sharing-knowledge-dear-projects 6 An Assets map can be an useful tool for getting to know each other and go beyond the challenges of newcomers and the leading of experienced organisations or staff: a simple table in the wall that each partner staff fills in with the hard skills, resources and also soft skills and unexpected talents that each one can mobilize to the project - inspired by ABCD (Assets-Based Community Development), see https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/asset-based-community-development/ 7 Idem, in https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/blog/sharing-knowledge-dear-projects

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/discussions/sharing-knowledge-dear-projects

https://www.nurturedevelopment.org/asset-based-community-development/



Because the need for a change in partners is not unknown, during your project’s start phase draw up a set of criteria that give an outline of how you will deal with the process of finding a new partner if needed. Discuss this with your Task Manager and make a formal submission to obtain their agreement to the criteria and procedure to be used. The relevant PRAG (see footnote on page 9) will also give you suggestions of what needs to happen during a change in partners.

C. Management: sharing responsibilities and information

Your proposal will have sketched out how management of the project will be done. Most probably at some point and for specific activities your project will use different management approaches; approaches that may be based on any of the following three ‘models’.

In deciding on which approach to use, for the project as a whole, or for particular task areas, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each in helping you to develop and implement a successful project?

Centrally Managed Approach Coordinated Approach Dispersed Approach

• A project team (consisting of all or some of

the partners) develops plans and oversees

project implementation.

• Implementation by all project partners

is centrally directed and managed by a

Project Manager

• A core strategy is agreed across all

partners, but exact planning and

implementation is the responsibility of

each partner or of a group of partners

assigned for this

• Organisation and responsibility for

implementation of aspects of the project is

delegated

• Each partner develops its own plans to

meet the project’s core objectives

• Implementation is diverse and is the

responsibility of each of the partners





and accountability



Proposal

Terminology

Manager


Manager








Partner Partner



Economic action

Social action


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up their own minds

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Implementation


Evaluation


Follow up


of you project

Level 6 Innovator

Level 5 Multiplier

Level 4 Activist

Level 3 Supporter



Level 0 Consumer




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fostersdevelopment

Involving actions


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learningapproaches

Raisingawareness


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Keep the information flowing so as to have project staff engaged and informed. The challenge will be to give enough information to everyone, so they can do their work effectively, but not too much information, so they can’t read it all and therefore will ignore it!

Useful instruments for internal communication and guidance are recommended by various Hubs participants - agree on the internal communication tools that people will actually use (e.g. tools for project management like Trello are great but if not everyone uses these they become useless - use an old fashioned email newsletter if partners agree it is the best). Having simple operational tools used by all staff is the most important - collaborative documents are very useful, but guidance and clear rules are essential to have all staff on the same page.

The main information systems you’ll probably need will deal with8:

• Internal project communication:

- Face-to-face or dedicated online conference communications, useful for both joint reviewing the project and for planning of a specific area of work

- Conferences (telephone/Skype/Zoom/WebEx/etc.) are useful for getting updates and agreements; for small group discussions (don’t use all-partner calls: ideally conferences should not have more than seven participants; use separate calls with working groups or taskforces);

• A shared, collaborative platform or blog (Dropbox, OneDrive, GoogleDrive, etc.)for use by all partners to keep aware of each other’s contributions and quarterly and annual reports

• Another good tool used by many partnerships are internal guidelines, brand books or project handbooks with the agreed templates, message formats, tools, references, or checklists. These are an invaluable help for managers and staff so everyone knows where to find guidance.

• For any activity or event, have checklists ready beforehand and create simple log books or folders to register the findings, a few photos and documentation. The same for financial and admin proofs, as well as data assessment, so nothing is lost.

D. Coordination tools and systems

Different aspects of the project may use different management approaches: use the most appropriate, allow for creativity, use an approach that can be adapted when needed, but be clear about why you use it.

Wherever possible use systems with which people are already familiar — unless a different system makes things easier: avoid tools that are complex or take up a lot of time to get used to.

8 For more ideas see: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/blog/sharing-knowledge-dear-projects and https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/documents/dear-programme-cluster-meetings-ec-grant -funded-dear-projects-brussels-18th-21st-april

• Regarding Finances, you will need up-to-date information on:

- how much money is coming in and how much money is going out (EC agreed budget as the basis for your planning and reporting; each expenditure allocated to the appropriate budget line allowing traceability and to trace how much each activity costs; use a password protected central electronic system for all partners to upload information)

• Regarding the data collection for Monitoring and evaluation see section 6

• And for External communication:

- what do you need to communicate, why, how will you do this, and why do you use those methods and not others? See section 4.


https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/documents/dear-programme-cluster-meetings-ec-grant-funded-dear-projects-brussels-18th-21st-april


Since 2013 the Calls for Proposals include an opportunity to provide Financial support to third-parties (or “sub-granting options”) - to reach and give access to smaller locally targeted players. Reasons to use sub-granting include:

• Improving the spread and reach of a project across more EU member states and diverse local communities, giving the opportunity for small organisations to become involved in a EU supported project and improve the project’s impact at grassroots level;

• Testing and creating innovation (pilots, seed funding) before scaling up;

• Helping capacity development of sub-grantees (small actors);

• Building a national/global perspective into already existing work of sub-grantees, for example in relation to the SDGs;

• Giving access to the project to networks of CSOs

The experience of using sub-grants was described by a sub-granting project manager as more than just handling financial grants and reports but most of all as a mission to build the capacity of the sub-grantees, reaching out to third parties and coaching for better results.

In one sub-granting focussed project subgrantees 1) used innovative activities and strategies to engage EU citizens with SDGs at a local level, 2) reached large audiences, through involvement of volunteers, with limited funding , and 3) reached diverse target groups with tailor made messages.

Recommendations from Sub-granting project managers include9:

E. Managing sub-granting projects

Subgranting goes hand in hand with coaching, networking and capacity building.

For organising sub-granting calls and outreach For support and communication with subgrantees

Take time to plan the Calls scheme and the implementation process: writing, publishing and disseminating the Call (including translation/adaptation, where necessary), receiving and evaluating proposals, agreeing implementation with sub-grantees, follow up and reporting - takes longer than you think!

Provide capacity building support for subgrantees; involve experts (local, national EU); organise Calls local sessions for dissemination and clarification (online or face-to-face); create clear project guidelines and templates, even a handbook for communication and branding.

Ensure that sub-granting provide clear and efficient means to achieving the overall project objective(s).

Ensure that sub-grantees are familiar and identify with the project and its objectives as a whole.

Design a clear structure and road-map about how you want to deal with the re-granting scheme and re-granting process: from recruitment, to implementation, to dissemination, to reporting.

Ensure regular contact between project lead/partner and the sub-grantees: exchanging information about respective developments, achievements, issues, learning, etc.

State clearly the objectives of the sub-grant call, as well as the tasks to be carried out by the sub-grantee; and the success indicators and selection evaluation criteria.

Arrange face-to-face meetings between sub-grantees and project leads and partners: to share experiences and achievements; to improve sub-grantee engagement with the overall project intentions.

The evaluation criteria include those that focus on the quality of work, sustainability and impact (what is the lasting effect likely to be)?

Support sub-grantees in reporting since many are not familiar with EC reporting requirements.

Limit the range of themes to be covered by sub-grants to not more than 2-3 (e.g. SDGs).

Provide sub-grantees with examples of good practice (e.g. in managing their grant).

Communicate Call intentions, application scheme and reporting processes in a simple way (e.g. don’t use European Commission or DEAR jargon)

Identify mechanisms/moments when project lead/partner and the sub-grantee jointly learn from what has been done and achieved

Assign dedicated project staff members to manage and support the sub-granting process and relations with sub-grantees

Agree at the start a timetable for implementation including when reporting is to be done

9 A report on the outcomes of a Learning & Development Hub about ‘Subgranting’ is available at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/report-ld-hub-torunsubgranting

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/report-ld-hub-torunsubgranting


Section 1 suggested that it would be worthwhile for you to get to know your ‘outsiders’ early in the project. Various Hubs looked at this issue in more detail, investigating how work at local community level, for example through ‘Change Agents’, can help in making ‘outsiders’ into ‘insiders’, i.e. actors in support of the project’s aims and objectives.

This section gives an indication of what DEAR projects have found to be some of the useful approaches and techniques in making ‘outsiders’ into ‘insiders’ - engaging European citizens in Global development.

Obviously how you work with your ‘outsiders’ depends a lot on what you want them to do in achieving the objectives of your project.

Much of that in turn depends on your intention for the project: is it a Global Learning project or a Campaigning-Advocacy project?

To recap:

A Global Learning project typically aims to develop the skills and understanding that relate to Global Development. It aims to do this so that the learner (who may be a teacher, community worker, student or pupil) develops the skills to make enquiries

about the issues, to analyse the issue and critically assess proposed resolutions to it, and to be creative about how the issue can be addressed: in the local or national environment, globally and personally.

Campaigning-Advocacy project typically affect either policies or behaviour. The kind of policy or behavioural change that is wanted is usually identified as part of a project’s objectives. To achieve such change these projects use not only awareness raising techniques but also, for example, public campaigning actions, lobbying, research, and public debates.

B. Pyramid of engagement: quantifying your outreach

Aiming to provide some guidance for a challenge faced by all DEAR projects - how to quantify public engagement - the DEAR Support Team presented a framework that can be used to assess the concrete forms of engagement. So far, typically each project has designed its own system of enumerating how many people are involved in a project, but that means that results are not necessarily comparable between one project and the next. It also means that what comparing the depth of engagement of the people enumerated because problematic: taking part in a training workshop is not the same as being a long-term advocate-multiplier for the project or its ideas, and signing a petition is not the same as adopting the projects’ education materials in formal classes.

To explore the intensity of engagement inspiration was taken

3. From outsiders to insiders

A. How to engage citizens: strategies, audiences, approaches

10 Inspired mainly in G. Rosenblatt (2010): The Engagement Pyramid: six levels of connecting people and social change, publ. Groundwire: http://groundwire.org/blog/groundwire-engagement-pyramid/ Also see T Kingham and J Coe (2005): The Good Campaigns Guide, NCVO London, or J Rowe and LJ Frewer (2008): A Typology of Public Engagement Mechanisms, SAGE-Publications: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.546.7172&rep=rep1&type=pdf 11 More details about each of these levels is available in Appendix 2 of the ‘DEAR Projects: Achievement & Impact Report 2018’, pp.60-66, available at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/dear-projects-achievement-impact-2018-report

from Gideon Rosenblatt’s ‘Engagement Pyramid’10: an adaptation of Rosenblatt’s ideas and terminology provided a triangle with six levels. Level 0 (Consumer of information) is at the base and Level 6 (Innovator) is at the top of the commitment and innovation for project promotion.

• Levels O, 1 and 2 identify the broad reach of a project

• Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 aim to identify the intensity of active engagement with the project and its issues, with Level 3 enumerating those who have one or a few actions in support of the project, Level 4 those who regularly are involved in project activities, Level 5 those who introduce the project’s issues and actions in their own local or work environment, and Level 6 those who use the project’s actions and issues and adapt them to their needs and opportunities.11

Use of such an ‘engagement pyramid’ framework can provide a basis for projects in developing their monitoring of – and reporting on - their engagement of targets.





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http://groundwire.org/blog/groundwire-engagement-pyramid/

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.546.7172&rep=rep1&type=pdf

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/dear-projects-achievement-impact-2018-report


12 Excerpt from Appendix 2 of the ‘DEAR Projects: Achievement & Impact Report 2018’, pp.60-66, available at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/dear-projects-achievement-impact-2018-report

C . Change agents, multipliers, peers?

For participants in one Hub that looked at the use of Change Agents or Multipliers12, Change Agents are those who, as a result of their participation in a DEAR project:

• do something in their own surroundings:

- taking (small) practical steps that assist in creating systemic change;

• are able to change

- their mind,

- local policies and practices,

- relationships (e.g. within their community);

• build networks of people who together create further change;

• are able to see relationships between processes and outcomes;

• have developed their own competences, e.g. in relation to self-awareness, critical or analytical thinking, organising participatory learning, or developing public engagement campaigns.

As in other work with members of the public, there are various challenges in trying to develop and involve agents of change, including:

• Language barriers - multiple countries, multiple languages and visuals, difficult also to exchange and network at European level

• Coordination and participation, as projects are operating on multiple levels – e.g. how maintain a balance between online and offline activism?

• The ability to commit time to a role as change agent varies from person to person: some may be involved for the whole duration of a project while others can only commit to a few weeks or months

• Complexity of Global issues – e.g. the SDGs are not easy to communicate and make relevant to local community concerns and priorities

• How to reach young people outside the formal education system?

• How to find the right “voice/tone” to engage each target group in an effective manner

Developing agency

In developing agency, good quality DEAR projects often explicitly or implicitly consider an approach that responds to the following issues:





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https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/dear-projects-achievement-impact-2018-report


This approach starts from the point of view that our understanding of the problem of ‘development’, poverty, inequality or of change (and what prevents and promotes it) is limited and that explanations of this are contested and up for debate. For the public’s contribution to development or local-global change to succeed it needs individual and collective re-thinking and discussion of existing and new perspectives, enabling people to make up their own minds about what is needed to promote (global and local) development/change.

Considering such issues can then help in providing successful methods that help development of Multipliers/Change Agents in particular.

Participants in the ‘Change Agents’ Hub considered there are a set of questions that would be helpful to develop a plan to recruit, involve and support Change Agents. Depending on the chosen approach, your answer to these questions will vary.

13 Check the full report of the Exchange Hub that took place in November 2020 here https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/exchange-hub-nov-2020-social-media-and-final-reporting





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Answers to such question can help during planning, implementation and evaluation: Please check section 6 for more recommendations but consider a central point: start monitoring with Baseline Questions (applied at the start of the project, before the project’s intervention) as well as Endline verification of those questions e.g. identify changes in skills and mindset by asking ‘Are you more confident / competent to act?’

Participants in a 2020 Hub came out with a clear idea of what are the extra challenges to address when you cannot meet face-to-face: how to ‘recruit’, build the capacity and engage your ‘change agents’, multipliers or peers for the long-term - check section 4 about online challenges and opportunities to address these too.13

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/exchange-hub-nov-2020-social-media-and-final-reporting


D . Engaging young people in development issues

Young people are a central target group for DEAR projects.

In a 2019 Hub, an inspirational and highly informative context for discussions was provided by Momodou Sallah, Reader in Globalisation and Global Youth work at De Montfort University Leicester, and also a youth worker with experience of engaging young people at community level. The main message was the need to go beyond raising awareness towards fostering a Critical conscience: for a project to have lasting effect on those who have supported it, involvement in the project actions alone is not enough. In order to illustrate this point Mr Sallah took as his starting point the Maastricht Global Education Declaration (2002:2)14

‘Global Education is education that opens people’s eyes and minds to the realities of the globalised world and awakens them to bring about a world of greater justice, equity and Human Rights for all’.

This implies a focus on development of critical thinking among citizens, and not just attention to disseminating short, partial messages. In other words, the idea is to stimulate processes of individual and group awareness of ‘their own role as a world citizen’ - respecting diversity, understanding global economics, politics etc. whilst having social justice as its main target.

Creating consciousness leads to taking action of young people - and what are the main challenges pointed by DEAR practitioners - and ways to address these? The main recommendation that concluded these discussions: you are not starting from scratch so do not reinvent the wheel, instead build on other, previous or existing projects and actions, use their strategies and materials, join forces, create alliances.

Challenge Ideas for addressing these

Involving local communities and whole school communities is difficult

Do not try to reinvent the wheel:

• work with existing organizations at local level or thematic specific; work with the media (local, specific, even national and social media) for better dissemination

• SDGs are interconnected so use these links, of local to global, of specific to general, to speak about global issues

• Be sure that the different perspectives are represented in each (school) community

• Bring these to the whole project approaches and actions (from Teacher’s training to Action workshops or local action planning - all connected to local actor’s and adapted to context.

Complex issues (as Diversity, discrimination, Empathy, Gender) are part of school communities - how to make young people aware andcreate visibility to a wider community?

Use 3 key factors:

• Peer education with young people, but also to target teachers, other educators (in formal schools or outside) and management of schools

• Promotion of policy change e.g. based in research; supported by experts/expert organisations; by positive communication

• Young people as actors of the change > allowing them to be protagonists

Targeting 12-15, 15-18 or >18 yrs old requires different approaches

Be flexible and adapt actions, materials, methods, communication to different age groups

How to create “ownership” of the issues and the project by teachers, youngsters, project organizations?

• Start from Young people to be successful > listen to their views

• Requires developing self-esteem (to allow agency) in an education system that is focused on knowledge and skills - key factor

• All these can remit and make the link to our main subject (being Climate Change, Migration or other)

How to have an impact? Relate to people’s real needs & concrete interests

How to change mindsets? By developing pop culture to engage youngsters and becoming role models

14 https://rm.coe.int/168070e540

https://rm.coe.int/168070e540


E. Other audiences and themes

Working in and with local communities and CSOs

Working at local level forms a key component of many DEAR projects, either as the sole focus of work or as a complementary aspect of national or international DEAR activities. Many audiences can only be meaningfully reached with local channels and personalised care.

Working in and with local communities can:

• help make your project’s theme relevant to what is alive at local level;

• provide opportunities for action that are of benefit to a known community;

• combine face-to-face local engagement with locally and globally focussed social media communications;

• give communication and feedback about your project based on personal relationships.

However, it won’t be plain sailing if you work at local level.

Participants in a Hub that focussed on working at local level identified various questions (and started to give some suggestions for answers) that refer to some of the challenges of working in and with local communities15.

Challenges you might face when working at local level Some ideas to address the challenges

Involving busy people (e.g. teachers, local politicians)

• Go meet people where they are: don’t rely on them to come to you

• Be clear about, and from your side adhere to, mutually agreed expectations

• Make it exciting! (attractive/innovative activities)

• Emphasize benefits to them

• Develop good contacts with decision makers’ assistants/secretaries

• Make your point clearly and speak their language

Mistrust of the European Union • Showing success examples e.g. EU exchange of practices

• Engage local European Parliament members

• Emphasize local partners rather than EU ones

• Be honest about the shortcomings of the EU as well as about its provision of opportunities to change our life positively

How to keep long-term goals of DEAR in mind when dealing with short-term projects

• Your project is part of a long-term mission/strategy of organisations – build on previous experiences and identify follow-up work

• Create contacts with people that can provide sustainability (policy makers; community committees; school directors)

• Produce outputs that will survive and that are useful beyond the project

Getting different interest groups to work together (e.g. a local authority, local school and local farmers)

• Get to know what drives each group: meet them individually first and explore possible connections/shared interests

• Define a common and mutually agreed purpose

• Get them to work together often

• Organic mixed working/debate groups

• Organise public events with input from all stakeholders

Relating local work to global efforts • Provide examples of similar issues and how they are being addressed by communities elsewhere in the world (make local-local connections)

• Relate your project and its local work thematically and structurally to global systems (make local-global connections)

15 For a fuller report on this Hub see https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/blog/sharing-knowledge-dear-projects



Engaging the public in the SDGs

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a key component or reference point for the projects supported through the EC’s DEAR Programme.

Covering a wide range of development themes and issues, the SDGs are intended to be universally applicable (meaning that they are to be achieved across all countries and societies in the world).

For European organisations, authorities and governments whose traditional development cooperation focus is on ‘what happens over there’ (i.e. in ‘developing’/’Southern’ countries) this is particularly challenging: to look more closely at and respond to social, economic, environmental and political developments in their own ‘backyard’.

A Learning & Development Hub that discussed the opportunities and challenges of engaging people in the SDGs suggested a number of principles which they felt were particularly pertinent to DEAR16.

Two of those suggested principles, relating to the universality and the interconnectedness of the SDGs, may give particular food for thought for the organisation of your project:

How does your project relate to and demonstrate the universality of global development efforts?

Recommendations to DEAR projects

In planning your project be specific on how you will relate to and introduce the SDGs:

• partially, by focusing on one of the SDGs (but placing that goal within the wider SDGs context)?

• fully, by explicitly focusing on the universality and interconnectedness of all the SDGs?

• directly, by explicitly focusing on the SDGs as your way into engagement with the public?

• indirectly, by using another theme or issue but then relating that to the SDGs?

Build your SDGs understanding and perspectives - and familiarise with other perspectives on the SDGs:

• based on your learning decide on how your project will address or contribute to the SDGs

Explicitly build on and use successful activities & learning from previous work, relevant to your project

Gather and use personal stories that communicate your project’s interest in the SDGs

Involve the public/your audience in investigating and responding to the SDGs in their own way (don’t start only with predetermined actions you have decided on and don’t stick to a top-down approach)

Build contacts with other projects/organisations/LAs involved in (issues relevant to) the SDGs

Take the long-term view but be explicit in how your current project contributes to a long-term vision

16 For a fuller report on this Hub see https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/blog/sharing-knowledge-dear-projects

How does your project contribute to specific SDGs and to the SDGs as a whole?

In considering these and other questions the Hub participants made the following recommendations for consideration by DEAR projects:

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/news/engaging-public-sustainable-development-goals-report


A. Online: the good, the bad and the inevitable consequence of the pandemic

DEAR Programme supported projects have one issue in mind that defines their whole strategy, from the planning of actions to the communication performance: how to meaningfully engage European citizens in the important matters of the world today? This implies the need to connect meaningfully with people’s values, hopes and priorities, in order to develop a shared sense of a ‘common good’ that can be worked towards by the maximum number of stakeholders high on the engagement pyramid mentioned in section 3.

Therefore, ‘communication’ forms is a core part of DEAR actions and approaches.

Building the ‘Civic Media Literacy’17 competencies by increasing critical thinking and capacity to interpret the World, is a part of engaging a citizen in global issues. Participatory tools from Media Literacy practices, two-way inclusive Communication for Development, agency from a Transformative approach, are part of the essential DEAR tools. But how to apply these principles when it is impossible to meet face-to-face?

Participants in a couple of Hubs took their time to identify the challenges and share potential ideas and actions to answer these challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.

These challenges add to those already identified in section 3 - language and culture barriers, commitment, complexity of global issues and SDGs, channels and right tone to reach young people and, the key coordination and link between online and offline activism. The multiple difficulties of going strictly online were summarised by Hub participants18 and provide a clear map:

4. Communication: Online, offline, ‘inline’ with DEAR approaches

17 See Civic media literacies: re-Imagining engagement for civic intentionality,Paul Mihailidis, Published online: 06 Feb 2018. See also other papers by Mihailidis and Gordon, Emerson College, Boston 18 Idem: check the full report of the November 2020 Exchange Hub here https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/exchange-hub-nov-2020-social-media-and-final-reporting





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Economic action

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full of risks


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of development


of development



up their own minds

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Partner

Partner


Partner

Partner

Show real people


Tell new stories








Implementation


Evaluation


Follow up


of you project

Level 6 Innovator

Level 5 Multiplier

Level 4 Activist

Level 3 Supporter



Level 0 Consumer




to development


fostersdevelopment

Involving actions


and now”



learningapproaches

Raisingawareness


understanding(s)


new policies


behaviouralchanges








Policies

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This group of participants had a set of strong suggestions to tackle the challenges:

• COVID took all the media space? Link project goals to the COVID crisis - e.g. link the pandemic to SDG topics; or focus on positive aspects (e.g. ‘open air cycling is good for health’ rather than ‘cars are climate killers and infection chambers’).

• Analyse your audience & channels and make appealing content with the right ‘tone’ to your target. Use different tools for different audiences and types of communication. E.g. Facebook’s good for hosting online and streamed events; Twitter for sharing news of those events and reaching a wider audience; for Young people use Instagram (invite influencers?) and make actions on TikTok.

• Find creative solutions and use incentives to increase levels of commitment: production of video (graphic illustration, comics) of an event; creating fun challenges on World Days (e.g. a dance challenge related to international food day?); transfer festivals online, attracting ‘Big names’ that enjoy larger potential audience; gamify actions as a strategy to reach youngsters.

• With youth unemployment rising, improve Online volunteering: build competencies and experience for their

CVs. E.g. online school for activists - then use testimonials and ask participants to be real advocates on social media, building from their training.

• Support skills development of multipliers - online, expert classes or nano-courses. E.g. using social media for effective message sharing.

• Co-create content with your audience. E.g. Have a youth panel, who in turn influence their constituency.

• Make the most of national and local level partners: small CSOs on the ground to reach youth; different pockets of networks; different workshops with regional specific activity.

• Get communication experts: a communication agency or consultant - a very flexible communication strategy is needed to be used by the huge variety of project partners.

• Do remain flexible: keep adjusting your strategies on these changing times

• And hopeful: institutions are also going online (e.g. increased number of social media accounts of local authorities).


B. Your Communication and Visibility plan

Various workshops and other events had sessions dedicated to communication.19

Give attention to your communication plans from the start, not as an add-on, because it provides an opportunity to test project’ planning, implementation & evaluation stages. Communication plans can help in refining the project’s efficiency and outreach capacity (staff, time, money).20

Recommendations to address challenges identified by previous and ongoing projects:

• Communication objectives: have a project communications handbook or a campaign guide for all partners; allow flexibility and adaptation to context and starting point of partners;

• Coordination of communication activities: foster regular internal communication; train partners;

• Audiences and strategies: research and adapt your strategies and tactics to take account of changing contexts;

• To reach non-engaged audiences: research best timing and best channels where to engage the less visible;

• Online activities as an opportunity, involving less resources to reach and involve non-EU voices, from Southern communities and youth;

C. How to communicate Climate Change

Robin Webster’s work and that of her organisation, Climate Outreach21 provided a focus for one of the Hubs with DEAR projects:22 providing researched evidence of what works in communications on climate change. Robin provided a practical context and advocacy strategies to communicate what prefers to call ‘Climate Crisis’23:

19 See the Exchange Hubs Reports: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/2018-exchange-hubreport (2018), https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/exchange-hub-nov-2020-social-media-and-final-reporting (2020); plus Commission staff Richard Hands presentation about efficient project communication https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/dear-communication-communicating-well-and-connecting-your-audience 20 For your Comm & Visibility Plan: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/ec/dear/documents/2018-exchange-hubreport21 https://climateoutreach.org/ is an organisation that focuses on research to improve communications on climate change.22 For a full report on the Hub see: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/pg/dear/documents/learning-and-development-hub-report-communicating-climate-change-and-global-development 23 Robin’s presentation at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/news/how-communicate-climate-action-more-effectively





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• Identify risks: have a crisis plan that sets-out how you will deal with unforeseen circumstances that make your original plans impossible to implement;

• Innovate: use new formats (online cooking?) and channels (using messenger apps?)

• EU Flag: when something is EU funded it needs to be clear: if you show your logo also show the EU flag.

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/2018-exchange-hubreport


https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/dear-communication-communicating-well-and-connecting-your-audience

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/ec/dear/documents/2018-exchange-hubreport

https://climateoutreach.org/

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/pg/dear/documents/learning-and-development-hub-report-communicating-climate-change-and-global-development

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/news/how-communicate-climate-action-more-effectively


Successful communications: what NOT to focus on and communicating across political boundaries

Although some people may be persuaded by facts, research suggests that for most people this does not work in developing their emotional, let alone their active, engagement with an issue. For example:

• Stories and messages that focus on the ‘far away’: “by 2050 this will happen...” or “the Arctic’s permafrost will disappear”;

• Stories and messages that are technical, providing lots of facts and figures;

• Stories that blame the audience for what is happening;

• Stories that focus on the disastrous nature of what is happening without offering solutions;

• Stories that focus on financial incentives that respond to the issue.

To address concerns and communicate across political boundaries, climate change communication should consider, build on and address the values of the conservative audience - in responding to those values:

• Avoid ‘big claims’, instead use personal testimony, be honest & authentic,

• Avoiding waste, keeping things in balance, continuity with the past are all key points to focus on,

• Co-benefits of addressing climate change - health, well-being - are good ‘ways in’ (but don’t call them that!)

• And: climate change doesn’t need to be the lead topic: start with the issues that concern your audience (but don’t lose the connection with climate change).

Localised vs. ‘Pan EU’ messaging - what works in one context may not work in another.

Discussions amongst participants suggested that where ‘Pan EU’ approaches and messages would probably works best would be through:

• lobbying, advocacy, campaigning that focuses on ‘top line’ messages aimed at EU and Member State politicians. For example, to do with support for actions that implement the SDGs in EU and national policies;

• education activities on developing understanding of for instance the SDGs;

• strengthening the EU-wide legal bases for actions to address climate change.

But: SDGs are not a top political priority in the EU or its member states. Therefore, a focus on e.g. trade relations of the EU and their impact on climate issues might prove to be a better way into highlighting the need to address (the consequences of) climate change.

The language of Climate Change - what language and words do we use when discussing ‘climate change’?

Participants discussed how language can be ‘stirring things up’ (making the issue seem urgent) or ‘calming things down’. ‘Climate change’, for instance, is rather passive and gentle while what scientists are describing is a crisis, since for humans and various other species there is an existential threat in the heating of the atmosphere. Other examples:

Climate Change (i.e. passive and gentle)

Climate Crisis, Climate Emergency (i.e. better related to scientific findings)

Fish Stock(e.g. as in “the stock of goods held in this warehouse”)

Fish Population (i.e. related to the number)

Global Warming (i.e. relatively gentle temperature increase)

Global Heating (i.e. which is what is happening)

Using revised terminology helps draw attention to the urgency of the issue - but needs to be tailored to each context.





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‘the public’) and how they perceive the existing mis- and disinformation

• Vision - a shared notion/vision for an inclusive society that addresses the challenges and opportunities of the COVID-19 pandemic and existing inequalities: making use of and involving virtual communities that have flourished as a result of the pandemic; migrants own virtual networks; the voices of those affected by migration (migrants and the public alike)

“Individuals process information at the personal level in a sense asking: ‘How does this affect me in my community?’,” said Prof Georgiou, adding “People engage with big issues by very often thinking in very small and immediate ways.”

In responding to the issues raised by Prof Georgiou participants highlighted that DEAR approaches give an opportunity to:

1. to hear those silenced migrant voices, counteracting the ‘non-existence’ of migrants with a communication made by real people with families, hopes and also problems

2. present migrants as actors for development in their own right, active people not just as ‘needing our help’ - even sympathetic reporting on migrants can be harmful

3. to counteract the flow of oversimplified information that does not easily capture these complex issues - engage the media with a more close and long-term relationship with journalists (students training etc.)

4. involve migrants actively in DEAR projects, showing positive cases and the possibilities that migration offers for host (and sending communities)

5. fight negative narratives: in reality, there is a lower number of migrants and asylum seekers than perceived across EU: asylum seekers/refugees represent less than 1 per 1000 EU residents - data of 2018 even points to 1 in 250025

A couple of solutions for the main challenges felt by DEAR projects regarding migration:

• Loss of message or focus across partners, countries and contexts: monitor and mentor partners/subgrantees; relaunch calls for sub-grantees if needed; make communication capacity building; look for ways to counteract negative narratives;

• COVID-19 cancelations of events/actions: more people attend online if there are creative events (e.g. from previous project: first time sitting decision-makers and journalists with refugees); lower carbon footprint and more kind of lectures, speeches and workshops online;

D. Counteracting negative narratives on Migration

A second major global challenge addressed by an external communication expert was Migration. Prof. Myria Georgiou, from the Department of Media and Communications24 at the London School of Economics, suggested that mainstream media (and social media) continue to set most of the agenda for public and political discourse, but often mis-represent or give partial views on the issue:

• Not necessarily deliberately (although that too happens), but often as a result of a fast moving news agenda that does not allow careful fact and context checking.

• The result is that reporting about migration is usually negative, with: Stereotyping (‘they all come here’, ‘they take our jobs’, ‘they are dangerous’, etc, etc.), and ‘Migrant voices’ being silent.

• Leading to a portrayal of migrants (and other minorities) as ‘not like us’: undermining human rights and social justice principles - and practices.

DEAR projects have an important role to play in helping European audiences dissect their news and information sources. Counteracting mis- and dis-information through:

• Media literacy: the resources, approaches and techniques that allow for sharing of knowledge and experiences; involving different publics in co-creating a different, more complete narrative; exchanges with media institutions and outlets; lobbying of policy makers

• Awareness raising: involving real people (incl. migrants and

Place migration in a broader, development, context - make it more human, with real people

24 The full webinar by Myria Georgiou that preceded the Hub can be seen here https://ec.europa.eu/international-partnerships/events/media-migration_en The report of the Hub that involved various DEAR projects can be found here: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/pg/dear/documents/eu-dear-projects-migration 25 See for example: Banarjee A V and Duflo E (2019), ‘Good Economics for Hard Times – better answers to our biggest problems’, London (Alan Lane)

https://ec.europa.eu/international-partnerships/events/media-migration_en

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/pg/dear/documents/eu-dear-projects-migration

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/pg/dear/documents/eu-dear-projects-migration


DEAR Projects try to create an effect at different levels:

5. Awareness raising/Global learning/Campaigning-Advocacy

Where a project puts the emphasis, and what a project can practically achieve to create a sustained impact, depends in part on what their focus is: are they there to change policies and political systems, or education practices and systems?

Three different Hubs - looking at work either in Advocacy-Campaigning, or in Non-formal education, or in Formal education – suggested the following approaches that participants had found particularly successful and useful with work on and with each level26.

Suggestions from Advocacy-Campaigning

Suggestions from Non-formal education initiatives

Suggestions from Formal education initiatives

Creating impact amongst project participants/audiences

• Ensure the issues have local relevance

• Don’t just tell people what to do: build up two-way communications

• Build up capacity to respond to ‘issues of the day’ and relate those to your project

• Ensure the issues have local relevance

• Develop your audience’s skills for self-sustained action

Offer practical tools and resources that can be used post-project

• Show how DEAR can be an approach to delivering existing teaching and learning requirements

Relate your project to the longer term professional development needs of teachers

Creating impact within the project initiating organisations/LAs

Show and give evidence that the project, its results and learning from it are relevant to the organisation’s/LA’s interests and strategies

Creating impact in other organisations and institutions

• Use your project, its results and learning to create or inform networks

Develop ownership of the project’s issues amongst leaders/educators in other organisations/institutions

Develop the capacity and resources of teachers/school leaders so they can influence their institutions on an ongoing basis

Creating impact in the policy arena

• Build contacts and trust amongst policy decision makers

• Use project outputs and results to inform development of policy coherence within the EU and in Member States

• Use or build networks that continue to put pressure in favour of positive change amongst policy makers

Creating impact in wider society

• Be part of or build a wider societal movement for change

• Get out of your ‘comfort zone’ by taking learning from your work to those not necessarily on your ‘wavelength’

• Develop (amongst participants) and promote (in wider society) behaviours that exemplify the project’s concerns

• Train multipliers/agents of change with the skills to use beyond the project itself

• Relate project work in formal education to needs and circumstances of the wider society/community

26 More ideas about this can be found in the report on these Hubs: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/documents/dear-programme-cluster-meetings-ec-grant-funded-dear-projects-brussels-18th-21st-april





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• Development of proposals that meet the needs of the target while addressing the problem. (In some cases the research can usefully be the basis for the design of parliamentary motions or legal texts.)

• Development of media briefings, including social media messages.

B. Global learning and competency development

Apart from developing or disseminating knowledge and understanding, many DEAR Global Learning projects focus on competence development, i.e. developing learners’ skills of understanding the changing world and of making changes in that world. In particular those projects that focus on SDG target 4.729(but not only those) refer to competency models developed by, for example, UNESCO and PISA30.

In commenting on these frameworks, projects at one of the Hubs felt that UNESCO’s ‘attributes’ focussed framework was especially useful for DEAR31.

Other frameworks were often felt to be too complex to be of practical use in education, or too focussed on formal education. Hub participants, however, also commented that what was missing from most frameworks was:

A. Creating policy change

In creating policy change the following experiences have been found to be very useful by previous DEAR projects:

1. Understand the political or (for businesses) commercial environment of your target: what are the challenges for them?

• do a PEST analysis27

• in the different countries where your campaign takes place: what way are the (political, economic, social, technological)contexts different?

2. Know your project partners and be aware of what and who they know amongst those who need to agree to a policy change

3. Use your initial research to recruit allies: identify (political or business) friends who are interested in/supportive of the issue and understand why they are interested/supportive.

4. Keep your research up to date during implementation and if need be adjust your tactics (and communication messages) accordingly.

And in using their research projects have found the following particularly useful28:

• Development of research papers identifying the problem and suggested ways forward (for use with and by key activists and/or for use with targets in lobbying meetings).

• A sense of agency: i.e. development that individuals and groups can create change.

• The absence of a competence relating to understanding and responding to ‘Power’.

27 Also see section 1. For suggestions on organising a PEST analysis see for example PEST Analysis Ultimate Guide: Definition, Template, Examples (www.pestleanalysis.com )

28 Also see for example:_ Reference: http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/The%20Nature%20of%20Policy%20Change%20and%20Implementation.pdf and https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/policy-change-hub-report-september-2020 29 See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3CsZjBpxI&feature=emb_title 30 See UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals – Learning Objectives: ‘competencies for sustainability’: https://www.sdg4education2030.org/education-sustainable-development-goals-learning-objectives-unesco-2017 OECD PISA 2018 Global Competence: ‘competencies that are needed in a globalised and globalising world’: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2018-global-competence.htm UNESCO Global Citizenship Education outcomes: ‘attributes to be developed amongst learners’: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232993 31 For a write-up of DEAR project discussions about these models see: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/global-learning-learning-development-hub-helsinki-nov-2019-report

UNESCO: attributes (traits and qualities) of global citizens

Informed and critically literate

• About global governance systems, structures and issues

• About interdependence and connections between global and local concerns

• About skills for civic literacy (incl. enquiry and analysis) developed through active engagement and learnin

Socially connected and respectful of diversity

• Understanding of identities, relationships and belonging

• Understanding of shared values and common humanity

• Appreciation of and respect for difference and diversity

• Understanding the complex relationship between diversity and commonality

Ethically responsible and engaged

• Based on human rights approaches and attitudes and values of caring for others and the environment

• Personal and social responsibility and transformation

• Skills for participation in the community and contribution to a better world through informed, ethical and peaceful action

https://pestleanalysis.com/

http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/The%20Nature%20of%20Policy%20Change%20and%20Implementation.pdf

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/policy-change-hub-report-september-2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3CsZjBpxI&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=Bridge47

https://www.sdg4education2030.org/education-sustainable-development-goals-learning-objectives-unesco-2017

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2018-global-competence.htm

https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000232993

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/global-learning-learning-development-hub-helsinki-nov-2019-report


6. Who’s afraid of social impact?

An online seminar was organised to introduce DEAR projects to key terminologies used in the setting up of logical frameworks, and to discuss issues that projects might face in applying these in their monitoring (and evaluation).

Given the variety of DEAR projects supported by the EU, development of a comprehensive, integrated EU DEAR Programme monitoring system is complicated. However, some attempts to work towards this have started, including through the reporting structure which new projects are asked to work with. Further work on an EU DEAR programme-wide reporting framework is envisaged in 2021.

The terminology in the following diagram of the ‘results chain’ and a related list of indicators is explained in more detail in a report of a seminar on these issues:33

The online presentation included a session for clarification of participants’ queries - the summary of issues and ways to address these are summarised in the following table.

Issues Possible ways to address this

How to measure behaviour change amongst a large group?

Use survey polls with randomly selected members of the group In contacts with (members of) the group:

• use questions that ask respondents to reflect on their learning and/or on their ‘next steps’

• ask respondents how they think behaviour change will be shown

How much of the logframe can be revised?

The intentions of the Overall and Specific Objectives need to stay as originally proposed, i.e. you can’t introduce a radically new objective but you can change the wording of the existing ones. Other aspects (indicators, targets, etc.) can be changed. N.B. Agreement from the TM is needed for any changes to the logframe.

Contribution to impact: how can we make sure that our project contributes? (the question of attribution)

DEVCO does not look for evidence of attribution.Evidence of change will be through proxy indicators that assume that the project’s work has contributed to the overall objective and hence impact.

Suggestions • Collect data, relevant to outcomes, regularly to assist in mid-and final evaluations

• Use Outcome Mapping and Most Significant Change techniques-at beginning, middle and end of your project: keeping track of progress

• Use gender indicators where required with an inclusive approach (f/m/other/prefer not to say)

• Use pre-and post-training surveys to assess changes in knowledge, understanding and skills

• Engage an external evaluator from the beginning: if only to make sure that you have the required information that enables the evaluator to find out about the processes and achievements of your project

32 Various Hubs have given attention to M&E -. Reports on them each give suggestions from the projects on the development and use of quality M&E. See for example: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/pg/documents/learning-and-development-hub-report-ljubljana-2017; https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/event/dear-site-cluster-meetingreading-2015 and https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/documents/dear-programme-cluster-meetings-ec-grant-funded-dear-projects-brussels-18th-21st-april. N.B. - these Hub reports were developed before the current DEVCO guidelines (and ROM Handbook) were available, therefore do not necessarily follow the same terminology and interpretation. However, the examples of issues they faced and solutions they found are likely to be useful to 2018 CfP projects too.33 Find Milena Isakovic Suni (DEVCO 04 Senior Monitoring Specialist) presentation and summary reporte here https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/monitoring-seminar-dear-2018-cfp-projects. For full terminology see the ROM Handbook: DEVCO guidelines (2020), and https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/results-and-indicators.





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A. Results chain and other references for M&E32

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/pg/documents/learning-and-development-hub-report-ljubljana-2017

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/event/dear-site-cluster-meetingreading-2015



https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/monitoring-seminar-dear-2018-cfp-projects

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/results-and-indicators


B. Setting up your monitoring system and learning from implementation

To be able to say how you’re doing it is useful to know where you started from. Although involving an evaluator in the final year of a project is useful for you to account for what you’ve done and achieved, and although it can give ideas for future work and ways of working, it will be too late by then to learn for improvements to the project itself.

In discussing the use of evaluation, Hub participants came up with the following recommendations34:

Get an external evaluator involved from the beginning - use their findings as a means of learning to make your project more effective.

34 All Exchange and Learning & Development Hubs gave attention to evaluation, but two reports include particular suggestions from EC-DEAR projects.-See https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/documents/learning-and-development-hub-report-ljubljana-2017 and https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/event/dear-site-cluster-meetingreading-2015

Before and at the start of project implementation

• Familiarise yourself with the evaluation outcomes and recommendations from previous DEAR projects

• Identify where the possible evaluation of this project will feed into your organisation’s strategy and strategic planning

• Integrate planning of the M&E approach with the planning of activities and outputs

• Establish a baseline survey relevant to your intended project’s key processes and/or outcomes

• Do not forget to include a budget and time for one or more mid-term evaluations (they are often the most useful for learning and improving your project)

Build your capacity for M&E

• Develop the project’s M&E structure and processes with your external evaluator and dedicated project staff as soon as possible in the project

• Allocate (plenty of) time and money for monitoring, evaluation and learning throughout the whole implementation process

• Include planning for monitoring, evaluation and learning in your implementation planning within and between all partner organisations/LAs:

• ‘harvest’ experiences after all major activities and periodically for the whole project: using questionnaires, feedback forms, reports, focus groups, informal meetings. Creating a ‘lesson log’ or ‘learning journal’ can help in collating perspectives and experiences from across all of the stakeholders in your project

• Depersonalise criticism e.g. by allowing for anonymous feedback and observations from within and from outside the project team

During the implementation of your project

• Focus on outcomes: re-visit the proposed logframe and re-assess the viability and relevance of proposed activities and outputs. Involve your external evaluator or critical friend and, if possible, one or more of your project’s intended beneficiaries in this process. If changes are needed to the logframe keep your Task Manager informed (see section 1 for suggestions on this)

• Decide what you are going to measure and why (impact-driven monitoring)

• Keep the processes of gathering evidence as simple as possible: give more time to learning from the M&E evidence than to the implementation of the M&E processes

• Make your logframe and your M&E system work for you and your project – instead of for the funder. Make changes to your approaches if needed. As long as you can show that changes to the logframe help the project in improving its results, the Commission is unlikely to object,.

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/documents/learning-and-development-hub-report-ljubljana-2017



C. MEL, external evaluators and critical friends

Two quality features and useful support to the implementation of any DEAR project are:

• learning mechanisms embedded into the monitoring systems;

• the engagement of an external evaluator or critical friend at the start of the project35,

Building from the Hubs’ participants shared knowledge, here follows a summary of the major challenges in making productive use of (learning from) M&E during project implementation - and suggestions on approaches, activities and techniques that, in their experience, have been useful. Challenges for MEL:

1. What is being done in a project is not necessarily based on

broader experiences of what works

Resolution: in reflecting on what has been done (with an external evaluator or critical friend), make use of researched evidence of what works (tools, approaches).

2. Agreeing changes to the project’s original logframe is

problematic

Resolution: the purpose of M&E is to learn and that application of that learning may involve changes in plans in order to make the project more effective

3. Evaluation fatigue amongst stakeholders and beneficiaries who

too often get M&Evaluated

Resolution: use (by evaluator) of observation and participatory assessment and development techniques instead of interviewing: collecting stories and information from discussions. Arrange only interviews with those (few) that can give different perspectives.

4. Widely differing levels of experience, skills and/or capacity

amongst partners / staff.

35 “The concept of Critical Friends emerged in an educational context: meaning a person of trust supporting another’s learning through critical questions, data and an outsider’s perspective. These experts act both as trusted insiders and as independent outsiders. As trusted insiders, they are accompanying the whole process from beginning to end and therefore relying on participatory and real-time methods to be able to tackle upcoming issues right when they emerge. This iterative approach allows a lot of flexibility for addressing the needs of the organizations. As evaluators are not directly involved in the implementation of the project but in the topic, they can use their independent outsider position to provide input, feedback, suggestions, recommendations and data in order to help implementation and support reflection” (Eronen et al. 2018). It is an heuristic posture for an evaluator, entering in dialogue with the project’s stakeholders. For more information see https://gender-spear.eu/blog/post/14/the-critical-friends-approach





and accountability



Proposal

Terminology

Manager


Manager








Partner Partner



Economic action

Social action


full of risks


ing and living



of development


of development



up their own minds

Political action

Partner

Partner


Partner

Partner

Show real people


Tell new stories








Implementation


Evaluation


Follow up


of you project

Level 6 Innovator

Level 5 Multiplier

Level 4 Activist

Level 3 Supporter



Level 0 Consumer




to development


fostersdevelopment

Involving actions


and now”



learningapproaches

Raisingawareness


understanding(s)


new policies


behaviouralchanges








Policies

Society / Community










Resu

lts

(OEC

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tion)






Outputs




Outreachtools

events

fear

trends

change

socialsocial

keep

identity

NoShowRate

social

people

target

media

Tone

Difficult

Resolution: give time for good practices sharing e.g. through the use of peer learning techniques.

5. Lack of willingness to learn and attitudes of ‘we have always done it like this’: is it possible to learn from others or do we

need to make mistakes and (re)invent the wheel ourselves?

Resolution: Use peer to peer learning(e.g. through mentoring or micro-groups within the project). Dedicate time and resources to promote learning during the project.

What is the ‘added value’ of an external evaluator/critical friend during project implementation? Or using MEL instead of only Monitoring during implementation? A summary of key points made by Hubs participants:

https://gender-spear.eu/blog/post/14/the-critical-friends-approach


DEAR approaches, especially when aiming at behavioural change, require time for outcomes to be achieved and are not always easily traceable by more classic monitoring tools. ‘How do we know it’s working?’

Some suggestions from previous DEAR Global Learning projects staff can be of help - using:

• Baseline survey or other assessment of the Awareness, Knowledge, Values, Skills (A KU S VAD)37 of participants and identifying what participants want to gain

• Learning diaries and their analysis (for instance by the project’s evaluator)

• Event feedback (to do with learning about content and from the process)

• Most significant change investigation: most important thing that participants think has changed (in A KU S VAD) for them personally as a project participation result?

• End of action test or end-line survey: e.g. regarding A KU S VAD gains by participants

• Assessment of intentions: what do participants plan to do with their learning?

• Other signs of engagement in general: when participants/beneficiaries take the lead to follow up or develop new activities or use the resources or engage new colleagues.

How do you create lasting impact? How do you develop a process and results that are sustained beyond the life-time of the project? Or very concretely, how do you prove that a DEAR project is delivering efficiently?

In some cases the policy change you achieved will create a continued effect of your work. In other cases the processes, networks or structures, knowledge and skills which you developed during the project will have to contribute to a long-term effect.

Representatives of EC-DEAR projects discussed these issues and made the following points38:

Towards lasting, sustained impact …

… amongst project audiences/ participants

• Ensure that the project has had, and will continue to have, local relevance

• As part of the project’s implementation process, develop the audience’s/participants’ skills for self-sustained action beyond and outside of the project

• Ensure that ‘tools’/ideas developed during the project continue to be accessible in the post-project period

• Within formal education: suggest and develop opportunities for whole-school teaching and learning (instead of focussing on one or a few modules or subjects)

… within the project’s own organisation or authority

• Relate project results to the organisation’s/authority’s long-term plans and strategies

• Explicitly identify how project learning can feed into future organisational planning

… amongst other organisations, institutions, authorities

• As part of the project’s implementation process develop and apply a framework for building networks: to share project learning etc. and to build multi-stakeholder collaborations for the future

• Build contacts with other organisations, institutions, authorities based on development of mutual trust and shared recognition of different expertise: e.g. time for joint critical reflection on learning and experiences from a range of related projects or work

… within the policy arena • Develop contacts (while the project is going on) with decision makers (ministries, parliamentarians, etc.) and pol-icy influencers (e.g. media): keep them informed of the project, its achievements and next (post-project) plans

… within wider society and community

• Continue to support wider society/ community to act in response to the issues raised by the project (this may be a policy action, education action, community practice action, or personal behavioural action; at a minimum it will require continued access to relevant project tools and approaches)

• During the project’s implementation process, train multipliers: with skills to use beyond the project itself and within their own communities and societies

36 For further information and methods to assess real engagement and impact, see for e.g.: https://www.globaleslernen.de/de/theorie-und-praxis-globales-lernen/evaluierung-und-wirkungsbeobachtung http://www.educasol.org/spip.php?page=recherche&recherche=evaluer&x=0&y=0 https://globaldimension.org.uk/how-do-we-know-its-working/ https://www.academia.edu/11225383/Monitoring_Education_for_Global_Citizenship_A_contribution_to_debate(chapter 6 in particular). Also see the report on a previous L&D Hub specifically focussed on assessing learning: https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/event/dear-site-cluster-meetingreading-201537 See for example http://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/attitudes-and-values/Attitudes_and_Values_for_2030_concept_note.pdf 38 In the 2015 Clusters you can find more suggestions, see the full report online at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear-programme/documents/dear-programme-cluster-meetings-ec-grant-funded-dear-projects-brussels-18th-21st-april.

D. How do we know it’s working36?

https://www.globaleslernen.de/de/theorie-und-praxis-globales-lernen/evaluierung-und-wirkungsbeobachtung

http://www.educasol.org/spip.php?page=recherche&recherche=evaluer&x=0&y=0

https://globaldimension.org.uk/articles/how-do-we-know-its-working/

https://www.academia.edu/11225383/Monitoring_Education_for_Global_Citizenship_A_contribution_to_debate


http://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/attitudes-and-values/Attitudes_and_Values_for_2030_concept_note.pdf



To create lasting results, plan from the start how your audience/participants/supporters/targets will be able to use the project’s ideas and tools once the project is finished.

A DEAR project is finite, but Hub participants39 suggested that its results can continue by:

• Developing the understanding, disposition and tools to act, of staff and of supporters

• Maintaining the tools and resources of the project on a website

• Developing teaching and learning resources that inform a next generation of the issue - there by keeping it on future agendas

• Designing a follow-on project that builds on the achievements of the earlier project

• Considering how the project’s results will be maintained at the start of the project

• Developing alliances of supporters, e.g. amongst consumers or politicians who will continue to give attention to the issue

• Being part of a network that continues to give attention to the issue, building on the project’s achievements - e.g. of “Make Fruit Fair” campaign & advocacy project (2015-2018: 27 organisations in 20 EU Member States) cooperated with existing networks (e.g. Banana Link) and after two-year public campaign led to a European Commission Directive aimed at protecting suppliers from abusive practices - is now continued by those same reinforced networks.

39 Check the full report on ‘Policy Change Hub’ at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/policy-change-hub-report-september-2020

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/policy-change-hub-report-september-2020


7. Achievements, celebrations and...reports?

A. Escaping the most common pitfalls: narrative reporting

No matter if you are in the middle or at the end of your project - it is certainly time to celebrate the achievements. But you also need to make these visible and comply with the contractual reporting obligations.

During the 2015 Cluster, DEAR Sector staff discussed with participants their expectations regarding DEAR project reporting and gave a general overview of the characteristics of a good, not so good and bad narrative reporting.

The point was stressed that reporting should focus on the intended project results and outcomes and how particular planned and executed activities contribute to such results and outcomes (or, if they haven’t, why this had not been the case).

Poor project reporting tended to focus on an endless and detailed listing of activities that were carried out but this does not give an impression of the actual achievements of a project. To allow an overview of the project present summarised data and aggregated, not several separate descriptions of results for each country.

From another workshop40 DEAR Project Managers and DEAR Task Managers gave suggestions on how to interpret the (Interim) Narrative Reporting Requirements, making it useful for both and allowing collation of data and results. This report became a kind of unofficial guide for good reporting - in no way mandatory, but suggestions might be useful when writing a final between report.

The annotated ‘Final reporting guidelines for DEAR Call for Proposals 2016 projects’41. Although this is particularly relevant to 2016 CfP DEAR projects, some of the clarifications are likely to be useful too to newer projects.

B. Financial reporting

Financial reporting too needs to meet particular requirements. During the 2020 Inception Seminars attention was given to this42 .

Remember the four main reference documents are:

1. Financial Regulations – the core publication that states the principles and legal binding information of the entire EU. No need to consult as procedures are detailed in the PRAG.

40 Even if reference documents are outdated, you may find the report of the Exchange Hub (February 2019) supported the projects staff into taking doubts and reviewing reporting good practices at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/narrative-reporting-dear-projects-guidance-based-exchange-hub-february-2019 41 https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/final-narrative-project-reporting-eu-dear-projects 42 The Inception Seminar for CfP2016 projects report can be found at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/news/presentations-dear-inception-seminar-2018 and annexes of the report, PPT presentations, Prag and ‘Finding answers in the documentation’ (March 2018) at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/node/71384. The Financial and contractual questions answered Inception Seminar 2018 here https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/faq-financial-and-contractual-questions-answered EU DEAR projects: consequences of Covid-19, see the full Report and Q&A on the Online Hub for EU DEAR projects, 13th May 2020 at https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/report-covid-19-hub

2. PRAG - PRActical Guide - the complete guide to all procedures, explaining all rules, is updated regularly. Although not a legal document, more of a guideline - Financial Regulations are the ‘Ten Commandments’ but the specific rules and more information to meet these are laid out by PRAG. Read selectively: look only at the rules that really apply.

3. Guidelines published with each Call for Proposal - set the parameters projects cannot deviate from and the reference documents (version of PRAG to be applied, etc.)

4. Contract - The annexes of the contract set the parameters for changes and management, including Annex II. the General Conditions that set the basic rules for DEAR contracts.

Arriving here at these final recommendations, do take your time for

celebration - never forget the joy, the solidarity and the affection that

makes the human solid base of Development Education.

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/narrative-reporting-dear-projects-guidance-based-exchange-hub-february-2019

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/narrative-reporting-dear-projects-guidance-based-exchange-hub-february-2019

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/final-narrative-project-reporting-eu-dear-projects

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/news/presentations-dear-inception-seminar-2018

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/node/71384

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/faq-financial-and-contractual-questions-answered

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/report-covid-19-hub


8. NotesThe EU DEAR Programme

The Development Education & Awareness Raising (DEAR) Programme

aims to promote understanding and engagement of Europeans in global

development efforts. Information about the Programme and the projects

it supports can be found at www.capacity4dev/dear and www.dear-

programme.eu

DEAR Exchange Hubs and Learning & Development Hubs 2015 -2020

From 2015 to 2020 various workshops involving EC supported projects

were organised for the European Commission by the DEAR Support

Team. They were concerned with the following issues and themes:

• Creating Sustained Results, Brussels 2015

• Working with Agents of Change and ‘Multipliers’, Prague 2015

• Assessing results of DEAR activities on project participants, Reading 2015

• Engaging EU publics in issues of social-economic change, Dublin 2015

• Working in large partnerships, Milan 2016

• Working in and with local communities, Milan 2016

• Using evaluation during implementation, Ljubljana 2017

• Towards engagement in the SDGs, Athens 2017

• Using sub-granting or Financial support to Third parties, Toruń 2017

• Contributing to the European Commission’s DEAR objectives, Brussels 2017

• Developing Communication Plans for project work with external audiences, Brussels 2018

• Suggestions for completing Narrative Project Reports relevant to DEAR Projects from the 2016 Call for Proposals, Brussels, 2019

• How to inspire and engage young people in development issues, Sófia 2019

• Communicating climate change and global development though DEAR projects, Frankfurt 2019

• Revisiting working in partnerships, contacting targets, and MEL, Brussels 2019

• Global Learning: Experiences of DEAR projects and the wider Global Learning context, Helsinki 2019

• Impact of Covid-19 on DEAR Projects: exchanges between projects on the impact of Covid-19 on their plans, together with questions and answers to do with financial and contractual issues, online 2020

• Project suggestions and tools relating to DEAR responses to the issue of Migration (the webinar Media and Migration: counteracting negative stereotypes is also available), online 2020

• How to communicate well and some good examples and pointers for social media, online 2020

• Global Experiences and suggestions from DEAR projects aiming to create Policy Change, online 2020

• Policy and practice suggestions to inform Citizenship Education, online 2020

• The Results Chain and Monitoring arrangements DEAR 2018 Call for Proposals projects apply in their M&E work, online 2020

• Using social media to create public engagement, Online workshop, 2020

Reports on all these Hubs are available from the capacity4dev/dear

website at: europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/news/learning-dear-projects

A paper with questions for DEAR projects to take into account during

planning, implementation and evaluation is also available - see:

europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/asking-questions-about-dear-

projects

http://www.capacity4dev/dear

https://dear-programme.eu/

https://dear-programme.eu/


https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/asking-questions-about-dear-projects

https://europa.eu/capacity4dev/dear/documents/asking-questions-about-dear-projects


Documents

Global development campaigning and education in Europe